string to one's bow

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English

Pronunciation

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Noun

string to one's bow (plural strings to one's bow)

  1. (idiomatic) A skill, ability or resource.
    • 1932, Western Australia. Parliament, Parliamentary Debates:
      McGough has not a string to his bow. He had no friends behind him; that was the trouble.
    • 2013, Michelle Flatt, Wish It Wasn't M.E.: Living With Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 122:
      I feel doing the course would provide me with another string to my bow, and hopefully alongside the jewellery and card making, I would be able to be a freelance therapist and make the workload and times workable for me.
    • 2014, Bear Grylls, Extreme Food - What to eat when your life depends on it..., Random House, →ISBN, page 65:
      Knowing how to identify certain edible mushrooms is not only a pleasure, it's also a great string to your bow when it comes to wild food survival.
  2. (idiomatic) A lover, paramour or suitor, especially one of many.
    • 1837, Honoré de Balzac, Massimilla Doni, Delphi Classics, →ISBN:
      Massimilla was no coquette. She had no second string to her bow, no secondo, no terzo, no patito.
    • 2014, Barbara Kendall-Davies, Life and Work of Pauline Viardot Garcia, vol. I: The Years of Fame 1836-1863 Second Edition, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, →ISBN, page 152:
      Grisi now had another string to her bow in the form of the tenor, Mario, who was fast becoming putty in her hands.
    • 2014, Calvin Henderson Wiley, Alamance - The Great And Final Experiment, Jazzybee Verlag, →ISBN:
      Miss Artemesia, believing that she had three strings to her bow, and having mentally arranged her suitors into a sort of sliding scale, at the top of which was the judge, and at the bottom Phil Blister, was not in a hurry to make up her mind in regard to the latter's proposals.

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